December 8, 2012
HOOVER, Ala. - With a goal from freshman Femi Hollinger-Janzen in the 27th minute, the Indiana Hoosiers (15-5-3) will make their 14th NCAA title game appearance and first since 2004 with a 1-0 win over the Creighton BlueJays (17-4-3) in the NCAA College Cup semifinal match at Regions Park in Hoover, Ala.
Indiana will face the Georgetown Hoyas at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday for the NCAA title after the Hoyas advanced to their first title game by topping Maryland 4-4 (4-3 PKs).
Indiana's 14 NCAA Championship game appearances are the most by any Division I school, breaking the tie between the Hoosiers and Saint Louis at 13. It is the first time a 16 seed has advanced to the title game since the NCAA expanded the seeding to 16 teams in 2003.
"There's no doubt that strong team defense is the formula for having successful tournament runs and winning championships," Indiana coach Todd Yeagley said. "In the final 10 minutes, when Creighton was sending a lot of players forward, that's when you saw the resiliency in this team. And then that save by Luis was fantastic." The Hoosiers have allowed only two goals in four NCAA tournament games. Indiana first attack came in the eighth minute when a giveaway ended up at the feet of Nikita Kotlov. The sophomore took a 1-on-1 shot but Creighton goalkeeper Jeff Gal was up to the task, making his first save of the night.
Two minutes later, A.J. Corrado broke free with a one-on-one against Gal but the goalkeeper again was in position, coming off his line to make the save.
After a string of possession in the first few minutes by the BlueJays, the Hoosiers settled down and began to control the midfield, connecting passes and working their way into the Creighton penalty area. Gal did a good job of cutting off several IU passes.
Creighton had the first corner kick of the night with 21 minutes to play in the first half. Bruno Castro hit the top of the penalty area but Jose Gomez' shot was blocked by Caleb Konstanski.
Indiana's pressure paid off in the 27th minute when a deflected cross found Femi Hollinger-Janzen on the back post and the freshman slotted home his fourth goal of the year to the far post. It is the second NCAA Tournament goal for Hollinger-Janzen.
Shots were tied 3-3 with 14 minutes to play, with all three shots on frame for IU and none for the BlueJays.
Controversy surrounded the end of the second half as IU thought it had its second goal of the night from Hollinger-Janzen off a corner kick as time expired. However, referee Edvin Juresvic immediately waved it off, saying it did not cross the goal line before time expired.
Creighton led the shot tally at the half 5-3, but none of those five shots were on frame and IU held the one-goal lead.
Hoosiers immediately attacked in the second half and a wide-open Femi Hollinger Janzen skied a shot that could have given IU a two-goal cushion. He had another shot a few minutes later on a rebound that rolled just wide right of the net.
Jacob Bushue came back into the match with 33 minutes to play in regulation and immediately made an impact, heading a ball from Harrison Petts that was just off target, sailing wide right.
In the 61st minute Matt McKain shook his defender and served a ball into the box that was picked out of the air by Gal before Zavaleta could get his head on it.
Creighton had its most dangerous attack of the second half with just over 20 minutes to play, as Timo Pitter broke free on a cleared ball. The freshman slowed up and was caught by the IU defense, and his attempt to lay the ball off to Christian Blandon was ruled offside.
Soffner was relatively untested until the 88th minute when he was forced to make a leaping save on a shot from Brendan Hines-Ike. Soffner second save of the night came at 89:17 on another shot from Hines-Ike, but the senior was up to the challenge to keep his 11th clean sheet of the season.
Luckily that was really the only thing I had to do all night," said Soffner, who has given up 18 goals in 23 games this season.
Soffner now has 15 wins on the season, the most victories by a Hoosier goalkeeper since Indiana's last NCAA title in 2004 when Jay Nolly tallied 19 wins.
Source: http://indiana.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1446645
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